The trial of Nancy Crampton Brophy — a Portland romance novelist accused in 2018 of gunning down her husband, Oregon Culinary Institute chef Daniel Brophy — was expected to begin Monday and could last seven weeks.

The trial comes after lawyers for Crampton Brophy, 71, made a bid to delay the case another year, arguing that older people might be wary of sitting on a jury because of exposure to crowds and COVID-19 and that their reluctance to participate could skew jury pools.

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Christopher Ramras ultimately shot down the idea, and now court administrators expect a flood of more than 70 witnesses to be called to the stand during the trial, which begins with facemasks required but other COVID-19 precautions no longer in place.

Crampton Brophy, charged with second-degree murder, has been back in court in recent weeks, wearing street clothes provided by her attorneys and a headset so she can clearly hear the proceedings, which have included Ramras’ denial of a motion to exclude from her trial evidence that she bought a “ghost gun” kit online. Prosecutors have alleged she purchased materials to build the untraceable firearm but never assembled the gun and instead used a Glock pistol to kill her husband.

Ramras hasn’t yet decided whether Crampton Brophy’s attorneys can present evidence from a letter she wrote to her husband in 2015, explaining their financial details in case she died during an upcoming surgery.

“In any marriage, there’s always one person who always gets everything in line, and that was me,” Crampton Brophy said in court March 25. “The basic part of the letter (was) that I love Dan, and he needed to know the information.”

Crampton Brophy, who remains held without bail in Multnomah County’s Inverness Jail, is accused of second-degree murder in her husband’s death. If convicted, she faces the prospect of life in prison with a minimum of 25 years behind bars.